Saudi Chemanol plans IPO for capacity expansion

14 May 2008 08:06 [Source: ICIS news]

Chemanol rolling out IPO to Saudis DUBAI (ICIS news)--Saudi-based Methanol Chemicals Co (Chemanol) plans to sell 50% of its shares in an initial public offering (IPO) as part of Riyadh's drive for gas feedstock-based petrochemical producers to go public, official sources from the company said on Wednesday.

Originally founded as Saudi Formaldehyde Chemical Co in the mid-1980s, Chemanol is undertaking an SR1.5bn ($401m) expansion which, when completed by the end of 2008, would raise the capacity of formaldehyde, derivatives and other downstream methanol based products such as plasticisers and resins to 1m tonnes/year.

The production process will be fed by a newly created 200,000 tonne/year captive methanol unit. When fully operational, Chemanol will be one of the world's biggest producers of formaldehyde.

Chemanol will offer 60.3 million shares in the IPO, with a portion of the offered shares will be allocated for mutual funds. The company`s shares will be offered during the period from 11-20 August 2008, according to a statement published by the local Capital Market Authority.

The initial subscription price will be disclosed once the book-building process is complete, it added.

($1 = SR3.75)

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By: Abdelghani Henni
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